What class are you playing on release

[Lyion]

Right now I'm looking at either a Priest or a Mage. I'm curious what class others are going to play.

[Zanchief]

Rogue or Warrior

[The Kizzy]

Warlock unless I REALLY love the hunters. Although Mages do get invis. decisions decisions

[Goose_Man]

Hell if i know! I really like this druid thing the whole shape shifting is the win.

[Tacks]

Warlock unless I REALLY love the hunters. Although Mages do get invis. decisions decisions

Mages can port too. As of right now, rogue has gotten to be pretty boring. I will probably play shaman or priest.
here's some info on Hunters:

And more Hunter News:
- They need their pet because they are ranged. The pet keeps the monster off you.
- Hunters can name their pets
- There is no player tracking that I can see. There is some forms of tracking with your animal's help.
- Tameable List? Nope. I'm sure players will create their own list You can tame pretty much any beast but some such as Kodos (apparently). Maybe a list of things you can't tame is better... No cows or sheep (tried that) haha.
- Bows/Guns auto fire? Yes, auto is an option.
- Dual Wield? Yes they do have dual wield. However, they're all about ranged so I don't think that really matters as much as it would for others.

You will be able to tame elite mobs and many *unique* named beasts. Taming an elite mob will not give it any bonus hit points, however. The only reason you'd want to do this would be for cosmetic reasons (you like the way that particular beast looks) or else to procure a beast with special abilities.

Helboars are technically demons, so you would not be able to tame one. Although Warlocks will find some fun uses for them >=]

Also, Black Drakes fall under the category of Dragonkin (formerly Dragons, but that was confusing people). So no black drake pets either.

I've spent the morning playing the hunter. You guys are in for a *serious* treat. The class has so many diverse functions. You can choose to play your hunter in so many different ways.

Some of his cool abilities include:
Beast taming -- choose a beast, tame it, name it.
Beast training -- teach your beast new abilities.
Traps -- these rule... many different uses
Stings -- special shots that debuff your enemy
Beast lore -- get special information about beast targets
Aspects -- a cool line of buffs
Beast fear -- run away little doggy

There is so much more that I am leaving out.

[Ganzo]

gnome warrior

back to the rootz

[Goose_Man]

I just found out that a druid in cat form can "Play Dead" think monk FD. Thats kicks ass

[Tacks]

no they can't, cat form is travel form

[Ginzburgh]

There are different types of cat form. Level 20 cat form is different than the level 40(travel) cat form.

I'll be playing a Tauren Druid most likely.

[Zanchief]

On release are you guys going horde or alliance?

[The Kizzy]

Horde

[Tacks]

Horde, being the underdog is always better. The game is easy enough as it is...more challenge is better.

[Ginzburgh]

Horde.

NT folks should really start a Horde guild on the same server.

[Lyion]

The majority of players seem to play Alliance.

A reason for that might be that Alliance is more polished right now in Beta.

I love PVP, and while I'll probably have characters on PVP and regular, I'll swap realms.. Probably Horde for regular, and Alliance for PVP.

[Goose_Man]

Horde

[Arlos]

Well, unless they make some serious changes to Druids, I won't play one on release. My druid (alliance) is L50 right now, and there's some pretty major issues with the class at the high end. Basically, the design idea for the class seems to be to make 1 class that can be gimped versions of 1 of 3 different classes. I can be a Warrior with 2/3 the hp of a warrior and half the armor, less DPS and less aggro control abilities. I can be a rogue with less DPS than a real rogue, slower stealth movement, only one of the stuns, and (most importantly) no sap or distract. I can also be a priest with weaker heals, worse nukes/dots, no way to keep someone low HP from dying rapidly, like a priest can with holy aura, and I don't get any rez at all. Oh, and with their self-armor buff, a priest (cloth class) will likely have about the same armor I do (leather class).

Oh, and switching to either of the class-like forms takes 40% of my mana bar, prevents mana regeneration, and also there's a 30sec cooldown after switching to base form before you can switch to anything else, meaning you can't rapidly shift to meet different needs in a group. Also, you cannot use ANY clickable items whatsoever in shifted form. This means no food/drink, no heal potions, no bandages, you can't even use the LEATHER HELMET that does AOE taunt, that's makeable with tribal leatherworking. (WTF is it leather if the only leather wearer that can be even an approximate tank can't use it when tanking?) This serves to weaken the alternate forms even further, when compared to the classes they're pretending to be.

As we all know from EQ, groups and raids won't take lesser versions of classes to take the place of the real classes, they'll just go get the real classes. (think Paladins or SKs for a long time, before SOE finally evolved them into real classes.) Raids might bring along 1 druid for the Mark of the Wild buff, which is actually excellent, and thorning main tanks, but that's it. As it is now, I only get group invites to groups who already have a priest, and that to serve as backup healer, usually because finding a 2nd priest is really hard, or the paladin is the secondary tank, and couldn't do that and backup heal at the same time. I think once, maybe twice, I've been primary healer in an instance dungeon, and both of those we had to make sure we had 2 other classes who could rez, in case of problems. Not to mention, since healing is probably the least-common ability (based on # of players playing classes) in just about any MMO, when Druids are called upon to group, it's because they can heal. This further marginalizes the alternate forms. I actually can't remember the last time I used cat or bear in a group as more than a novelty for a few minutes to screw around.

There've been a lot of posts on druid issues, and they've promised to work the class a lot, so I still have hope. I posted an idea to make druid forms more like the warrior stances, with a core set of abilities & spells across all forms, with each form getting unique abilities, and limiting access to some spells based on form, and editing mana cost for spells based on forms. Combine that with removal of the mana cost & cooldown for change, allow changing direct from one animal form to another AND weaken the class-like abilities of the alternate forms, to maintain balance, and you could have a pretty viable class, I think. We'll have to see what they end up ACTUALLY doing, tho.

At release, I dunno for sure what I'll play, that's gonna be determined in large part with how the classes are evolved til then. Mage sounds interesting, and my time as druid has me prepared to play priest pretty well. My other character is a L32 paladin, that was my Alpha character. Paladins are pretty cool, but their abilities don't synergize well together, really. Each individual facet of their capabilities is QUITE strong, but the fact that they don't mesh together well presents some problems. If they synergized as well as, say, the mage's abilities, Paladins would be in line for some serious nerfing. So, they could stand some tweaking, including some better aggro control, but all in all, a good class.

-Arlos

[Goose_Man]

Yeah I was just reading up on druids and as it stands right now it sounds like they need work.

I then shifted my interest to Warriors and Priest classes... I like the warrior A LOT but I feel there would be an over abundance of them on the server.

Any opions or thougths on the priest class?

[Arlos]

Priests are a really strong class, even in PVP. They get the absolute best selection of heals in the game. They get the best dot-heal, the best long-casting big heal, they get the ONLY insta-cast all-at-once heal, and they get what is basically a insta-cast rune they can put on someone that'll keep them alive long enough for another heal to land. They also get a couple pretty good nukes and a good DOT. They also get a couple self-buffs, one of which ups their armor from cloth levels to leather levels, the other massively increases melee output. Not to mention, priests are pretty rare and highly sought-after, so you will rarely if ever have trouble finding a group.

Priests are one of the best-balanced classes in the game right now, they are outstanding in their role, they have a fair bit of alternate utility, and don't intrude on anyone else's baliwick. If you don't mind being a healer, I'd definitely recommend a priest over a druid at this point. I mainly am sticking with my druid because I'm too lazy to level a priest all the way up to the same level my druid is. heh.

-Arlos

[Captain Insano]

I want to play the equivalent of an enchanter, which I heard is a priest, or a tauren warr. Possibly a rogue, but I have from a few people they are very boring.

[Arlos]

Well, Mages are the mezzing class, as they get polymorph (used to be Sleep.) Priests, I think, get a short duration charm, but it's kinda limited if I remember right. No class can cast haste, and the only 2 classes that can improve mana regen are Shamen and Paladins. In both cases, it's not a duration buff cast on a person, they're either a aura akin to manasong (paladins) or a stationary totem dropped on the ground that gives it in an AOE around the totem (shamen) Warlocks, from hints they've dropped, may eventually get a demon-only charm ability. Whether they can have a charmed mob at the same time they have a pet out, I have no clue whatsoever.

So, there's really no direct equivalent of a EQ enchanter. Rogues are, from what I've been told, a pretty cool class, especially once the next push happens and they get to get more benefit from AGI, since most rogue-specific gear is heavy on the AGI, and very light on the +STR. Rogue stealth, in the hands of a skilled player, is really better than mage's invis, since invis has a duration, stealth does not, and with distract, it's pretty easy to keep yourself to the backs of mobs.

-Arlos

[Savanna]

Definitely leaning towards priest


sav

[The Kizzy]

Savanna your sig is so romantic.

/sigh

[Ginzburgh]

Yeah, I think Arlos might have sold me on the priest.

[Goose_Man]

I started a priest this weekend. They are a blast. Much much more exciting than the EQ cleric. Now I can’t wait to see what happens when they bring in priest talents!

[The Kizzy]

I considered a priest, and I just cant do it, I still have nightmares about being a cleric, and I havent played in months.